Western Michigan Christian pushed to the limit by underdog Muskegon Catholic in district opener

LocalSportsJournal.com

MUSKEGON – The defending Division 4 state soccer champions withstood its first challenge of the tournament on Thursday night.

The second-ranked Western Michigan Christian Warriors held off rival Muskegon Catholic 2-0 in a game played at Warrior Field.

Tekalegn Vlasma takes a shot for WMC. Photo/Randy Riksen

“Any time you’re up against a team that is up against the end of the season, it’s tough,” said WMC Coach Ben Buursma about the challenging win over MCC. “Our expectation is to get through these games, but we’ve played that team (MCC) before and they definitely wanted challenge us.”

WMC was not short on shots on goal, but MCC goalie Miles Russick played like a giant in net and that kept his team in the hunt.

The sophomore goalie, Russick, played the game of his life with 27 saves on a barrage of shots that peaked in the second half.

“Under pressure, I play better and pressure makes diamonds,” joked Russick who was surprised by the number of saves he had in the match. “You give it your all, you play your best, it still sucks (losing) but it’s not as bad as it could be.”

Charlie Buursma gave WMC a 1-0 lead just 21 seconds into the second half. The senior forward was in the right place at the right time after a Cole DeJonge shot was blocked by Russick.

“We just told them the goals would come and take pressure off yourself to score,” said Coach Buursma about his halftime speech after playing a scoreless first half. “We were carving through their guys, but we just needed to make sure we settled down and took care of business.”

WMC’s Charlie Buursma gets a shot past goalie Miles Russick. Photo/Randy Riksen

The Warriors (15-2-3) continued to keep the pressure on an MCC (3-15) defense that dug in on its side of the field the whole game to block as many lanes as WMC’s offense could find.

MCC nearly tied the score midway through the second half on a free kick by Santi Sanches. Sandy Bingham was in on the loose ball after the shot and just poked his shot wide.

After managing the scare on goal, WMC went right back to pressuring the Crusaders’ net.

Buursma finally gave the Warriors breathing room with 51 seconds left in the game. Once again hammering home a rebound off a DeJonge shot.

The Warriors outshot MCC 29-1, of which 20 came in the second half.

The win advances WMC to Tuesday’s district semifinals against Ravenna.